QUANTUM

Relevant research field and scientific context

Quantum simulation of many-body systems permits to simulate non-calculable models and gives access to novel state of matter, as quantum Hall effect. Probing dynamical equilibration of open quantum systems, studying the formation of novel ground states in the presence of long-range interactions and the emergence of topological order represent future prospects for quantum simulation. Topological order, bulk-boundary correspondence, AdS-CFT duality, and the holographic principle are converging concepts developed in the last two decades that are set to reshape our way of thinking about collective phenomena from quantum matter to quantum field theory and quantum gravity. Entanglement resource theory and related ideas from quantum information are among the current cutting-edge tools promising to yield a unified characterization and enhance the understanding of these novel features of fundamental physics. Quantum and thermal fluctuations of the electromagnetic field are at origin of diverse phenomena such as thermal radiation, and van der Waals-Casimir forces. Recent experimental and technological advances have shown that these phenomena display counterintuitive features at short distance scales, the so-called near-field regime. The objectives of our research is thus to advance the comprehension of the quantum mechanical phenomena and orders that involve the physics of synthetic many-body systems, quantum field theory and quantum gravity.

Research Units:

Bari, Bologna, Camerino, Catania, Palermo, Milano (Como), Napoli, Salerno, Padova and Trieste

Local activities:

The research activities of Quantum at Gruppo Collegato di Salerno and in Naples regard the investigation of typical quantum mechanical effects and phenomena within the interrelated topics of Quantum Simulation, Entanglement and other Quantum Correlations and Quantum Control. In the context of the quantum many-body systems, we investigate the conditions for the existence of topological states in Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) and superconductors; the effects of curved geometries on global topological orders along with the effect of geometric frustration and disorder. Regarding systems with long-range interactions, e.g dipolar BECs, we study many-body localization and thermalization, as well as the supersolidity phenomenon in the presence of different external traps. In the context of Entanglement and other Quantum Correlations, our aim is to study purification and squashing protocols of quantum information and their applications to quantum matter at equilibrium and out of equilibrium, as well as to holographic entanglement in quantum field theory. We are also interested in the study of open quantum systems for understanding the evolution of quantum entropies, decoherence effects induced by quantum gravity, non-Markovian master equations. Regarding quantum and thermal fluctuations of the electromagnetic field, we apply new powerful surface-current methods to investigate further the non-trivial geometry dependence of the Casimir force and radiative heat-transfer between two closely spaced bodies of different shapes. In the context of quantum theory of probability, we use a representation of generic quantum states in terms of dichotomic probabilities or stochastics products and characterize quantum observables and covariant quantum channels. We are also interested in the investigation of monotonic quantum metrics emerging from relative entropies considered as potential functions, in particular we want to examine the relation between tomograms and dichotomic probabilities. In the quantum field theory context, we conduct studies on geometry and quantum tomography, by employing covariant phase-space formulation and Peierls brackets.

Main equipment:

The activity of the Salerno unit is mostly theoretical with software development. The group has a small computing centre (about 100 cores), twelve GPUs for heavy computing and about 20 TB storage including tape backup. An industrial 3D printer can be used to produce prototypes for mechanical parts

The local group:

Aniello Paolo (NA), Bimonte Giuseppe R.(NA), Illuminati Fabrizio (SA), Salerno Mario (SA), Alfonso Maiellaro (SA); Luciano Petruzziello (SA), Mattia Trama (SA)

Local P.I.:

Roberta Citro

National Coordinator:

Paolo Facchi